Building Better Credit Products
Rapidly is designed to create a better credit system for those who have lost hope in the current one.
Our credit system is broken. Just this year 145.5 million Americans had their personal information exposed in a data breach at Equifax. This desperately impacts a growing segment of individuals who may already be struggling to “rebuild” their credit.
With Rapidly, our mission is to build a completely new infrastructure to underwrite and make more democratic credit decisions. Our focus begins with personalization, transparency, and technology that will drive our pricing and decision-making models to create more affordable and inclusive products.
Our First Product
The first product on the Rapidly platform that we are excited to announce is RefundNote. With RefundNote we are providing a better option for the nearly 60 million Americans who use single payment credit products such as payday loans, online payday loans, refund anticipation loans or checks, and the highest form of credit overdraft fees.
What is RefundNote
RefundNote is designed to create optionality around when a consumer receives their tax refund or portions of it. With our product consumers can use their refund as an asset and borrow against it. Being that it is a fairly secured asset when they file their quarterly or annual income tax return, we can price 45–75% better than other forms of single payment credit products in which Americans spent over $40 billion on in 2016.
How We Got Here
We took into consideration how much of an asset a tax refund is for a large portion of Americans. In 2017, over 27 million Americans received an income tax credit. As this is one of the largest assets for a large portion of American households the process involves large amounts of paperwork, confusing tax laws, and compliance measures that seem to increase each year, and only a once-a-year liquidity event. The options are limited but the needs are growing for a larger portion of consumers who need more liquidity throughout the year.
In the current process still more than 50% of consumers file their income taxes through a tax preparer at a retail office like H&R Block or a mom and pop retail tax office. These consumers are often offered one-time loans such as Refund Advance ranging between $500 — $2,500 in exchange for tax preparation services that range between $200–400.
Our First Milestone
For the past six months our small team and early stage investors have been working to bring our first product to market. In time for this upcoming tax season we are excited to announce the live release of RefundNote. Consumers can apply for instant financing of up to $2,500 on the upcoming year’s tax return year round. We are excited to be leading our efforts to create a more affordable and convenient product for our ideal customers.
